any one ever hear of IHC train co are thery good trains, I have never heard of this company
any advice you could give would be appriciated.
NEW HO 0-8-0 STEAM SWITCHER UNDECOORATED 0-8-0 SHIFTER IHC
Thanks
OTM
IHC (International Hobby Corp.)
Their steamers are good for the most part. I’ve found their diesels worth avoiding. Kits are good, though I’ve seen better for the money.
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/801518/ShowPost.aspx
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/405846/ShowPost.aspx
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/137085/ShowPost.aspx
http://www.trains.com/TRC/CS/forums/1058292/ShowPost.aspx
This question comes up often. Do a search on the forum for IHC and a host of threads will come up. Here are just a few of them.
They are not bad, at least the steamers are not too bad.
They are nothing fancy for their price, but I do understand that they are rugged and reliable. What folks who know their favourite railroad’s engine types fault in the IHC locomotives is that they don’t manage to get it right for any one type. They make them generic and not highly detailed compared to, say, Bachmann or Broadway Limited Imports engines.
IHC has been making locomotives in Slovenia in the Balkans. Their parent company is called Mehano, and they have been around for a surprisingly long time.
Several fellows on this site have modified and detailed their engines and turned out marvelous ones with some effort. One of them is msowsun…hopefully he may look in.
This is a general rule of thumb when it comes to IHC:
Steam - smooth running, dependable locos with minimal detail.
Diesel - might as well put your money through the shredder. They have plastic frames, oversized plastic handrails, and are essentially 1970’s trainset locos with very few upgrades. There are far better options out there that can be had on discount for the same price or just a bit more, like Proto 2000, Athearn, Atlas and Kato.
Edit: Their Premier version of the GG1 is excellent, with dual motors and flywheels.
I have several IHC premier steamers, 4-8-2, 2-8-0 and a 2-6-0 which run very well. Based on the steamers I purchased a C628 Diesel which I was not very pleased with. IHC also sells kits that are ok and passenger cars that require some work but can be made into decent and reliable models. Hope this helps.
IHC is an excellent company, good quality and they have the old TYCO molds for Center St. buildings and a lot of the TYCO line of buildings which are excellent kits.
I don’t know what diesels have plastic frames, all mine are metal frames with all wheel drive and work great. The crack about shredding your money instead of buying IHC is just one persons opinion, IHC has been around a long time and their offerings are generally good to excellent, definitely worth the money.
May I ask if you have ever seen a Proto 1 oe 2k loco? Or Bachman Spectrum? Or Atlas?
IHC doesn’t have very good detail.
The IHC 0-8-0, which has a boiler that looks as though it could be from the old Tyco Chatanooga Choo Choo engine, and may well be, has drivers that look significantly larger than your average 0-8-0. In that sense it in some ways more closely resembles the 0-8-0s that Baltimore and Ohio and perhaps other railroads created by removing the pilot truck from a 2-8-0.
In reply to the prior poster, I think the IHC 2-10-2 is a nicely detailed engine – it has no prototype but the details look rather nice I think.
Dave Nelson
Yep I’ve seen all those brands and more…I’ve seen the price too!!! If you want to spend $200+ for a loco then you can expect it to have more detail…IHC doesn’t have high prices because they don’t get into all that extra added on detail, and thats what I’m saying , for the price their stuff is excellent. And BTW have you ever seen IHC’s Hudsons??
I never spent $200 on a loco. Although I spent $110 on a LokSound [(-D]
You can see what locos I have in my sig.
Which of the “Premier Series” have RP-25 wheels? The ads are almost never clear on that, so I avoid IHC.
The IHC 2-6-0 Mogul came thru with wheels that don’t quite make RP-25 but they are close enough to run on handlaid code 83 rail without having flanges hitting the spike heads. Mechanism is excellent, good smooth runner. Painting the bright nickel plated tender wheels does good things for the looks. You can add a working coupler in the pilot with a little Dremel work. For the price, you can’t beat them.
Here’s a slightly off topic question… How hard would it be to fit a spectrum connie’s shell onto IHC’s new pacific mechanism?
I have an IHC 2-8-0. It looks a little toyish when sitting on the rails next to a Spectrum 2-8-0, plus the motor protrudes into the cab. I’m also disappointed in its low-speed performance, in that it has no low-speed performance. It jerks into motion and jerks to a stop and just really doesn’t want to move slowly at all.
Here in Canada the " Presidents Choice " Train sets are all Mehano\IHC, As said before the Steamers are very nice run ok and we have switched a couple over to DCC,the K5 Hudson and the Big 10 from last year,the earlier offerings has smoke generators as well,they run smooth but are not as detailed as the higher end steamers.
Mike
They’re kind of a flaky company. Just an importer. Most of their stuff is out of stock a lot of the time. Never heard anything good about their customer service. Some of their structure kits aren’t bad for the $$$. Stay away from their diesels…
hi guys i took your advice and this is what i bought
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BACHMANN SPECTRUM HO 2-8-0 DCC TRAIN LOCO SANTAFE 83605 |
Item number: 190201423803 |
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thanks to all who gave advice re IHC, but i felt the bachman was a better deal>
OTM.
Gee, you sure got a great deal on that 2-8-0. This vendor is well known to the HO train community, good service, excellent reputation as well.
I have a heavily modified 4-4-0 , I added a lot of detail and rebuilt the tender I added weight where ever I could , mine crawls nicely and climbs well , the one unexpected benifit to the added weight is the wheels slip a little when the engine takes off with a train , kinda cool and realistic . So I can’t complain about mine .